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still that the Chief Auction had taken too much wine for his official dignity. The maintenance of Kat pinion was particularly induced by the uproarious and wilful way in which His Lordship received that tract. Intending to honor it in the usual manner, he endeavored to raise a laugh by enunciating at intervals, and in ludicrous and affected fashion, monosyllables; each time in a different tone and key, winding up in a kind of diminuendo cadence, with "And_so_he_died-away with a groan." And finishing off.
In the drawing-room he was loud. As I passed him he saluted me at the top of his voice, with "Me Anstey! what's the row? as long as you're happy?" Merrily to get him out of the drawing-room, I proffered to him a cigar in the smoking room. He cried out in a very noisy peculiar manner, "Ah! let's have one smoked one for years?" and he went accordingly.
I cannot put my hand upon persons — for I did not then feel that the penalties of observation were upon my shoulders, instead of those of all the Company — but I distinctly heard frequent allusion that night to the
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